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For science, fewer bodies come in

Donations fall in Florida despite signs of a rise nationwide. Why? It may be the cost. A state board wants to add a center at USF to help.

By KEVIN GRAHAM
Published December 11, 2005

If Vernon E. Krieber has anything to do with it, there won't be a single body at his funeral - not even his.

"I'm allergic to funerals," said Krieber, 76, of St. Petersburg. "I don't want to go to my own or anybody else's."

He's already made plans to make sure he doesn't have to.

Krieber filed paperwork almost 20 years ago to will his body to science when he dies. When his wife died in 1988, he donated her body. It ended up at the University of South Florida's medical school.

"It's the last donation you can make to an educational or charitable source," Krieber said.

But fewer Floridians have felt as charitable as Krieber these days, said the Anatomical Board of Florida, which oversees the state's body donation program.

Lynn J. Romrell, the board's executive director, said it receives as many as 500 bodies each year for use in medical teaching programs. Overall, he said, that number has dropped about 10 percent at a time when the need for donations has grown.

"We're not sure why," Romrell said.

He acknowledges that cost might play a role.

"It's not something that's done without a charge," Romrell said.

Florida's anatomical board requires donors or their families to pay the costs to transport the body to Gainesville, where the board has headquarters at the University of Florida.

Donations in the southern region of the state might go to a facility at the University of Miami.

The board has plans to establish a more central donation center at USF's medical school in Tampa, Romrell said. Helping cut down on transportation costs associated with body donations, which can average several thousand dollars, could encourage more donors, he said.

The board will soon offer a program to subsidize some of those transportation costs.

A center at USF makes sense because of the bay area's large population, Romrell said, adding that the anatomical board receives a significant amount of donations from the Fort Myers, Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa areas.

Christopher Phelps, a member of the anatomical board and chairman of the anatomy department at USF, said the school will soon complete the first design phase for a Tampa center.

The next step will be to create a business plan. That plan will then be presented to the USF medical school's dean and vice president, who must approve a loan to build the facility. Phelps estimated the costs to create the facility at $150,000.

Romrell called increasing body donations in Florida imperative to training doctors.

"For physicians to continue to grow, you can't replace the human body," he said. "If I'm developing a technique, I don't want to look at somebody's 3-D re-creation. I'm going to need the real thing."

Discussions about Florida's body donation program should coincide with proposals for new medical schools in the state, Romrell said. The more medical schools approved, the greater the need for donated bodies.

Some national figures tell a different story from Florida's, indicating that body donations is an increasing trend.

The Anatomy Gifts Registry, a nonprofit corporation in Hanover, Md., that facilitates whole-body donations, reported an increase. Director Brent Bardsley said the registry's number of donors has more than doubled.

Last year, the registry received about 20 donations each month. Now it receives about 50 each month, he said.

"The popularity of this option is definitely on the increase," Bardsley said.

Unlike Florida, the national Anatomy Gifts Registry doesn't charge families to transport the body to its facility.

Families must pay only whatever local fees they incur, such as the cost of the death certificate, Bardsley said. The registry handles the rest.

In Florida, the state-appointed anatomical board receives no state money. It operates on a budget of $350,000 a year, which comes from transportation fees charged to families and body storage and preparation fees charged to the end users, or medical schools, Romrell said.

From $500,000 to $1-million a year would be an ideal budget, Romrell said, and make the body donation program in Florida practically free to the donor. But he's lobbied unsuccessfully to find a funding source.

Hardly anyone in Florida knew the anatomical board - around since the 1970s - existed until Premier Exhibits of Atlanta announced plans this summer to bring a controversial exhibit of cadavers to Tampa.

"Bodies, the Exhibition" promised "real human bodies." The anatomical board tried to shut it down before it opened in August at the Museum of Science and Industry. Romrell wasn't satisfied with exhibitors' explanations that the bodies used were unidentified and unclaimed people from China.

Romrell and the board insisted Premier and MOSI had to provide consent forms from the 20 fully preserved and posed cadavers, approving the use of their bodies. No such forms existed.

When Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist refused to enforce the anatomical board's condemnation of "Bodies," MOSI opened the exhibit two days early. The anatomical board backed down, calling on lawmakers to take up the issue at a later time.

Already, record crowds of more than 180,000 people have seen the "Bodies" exhibit.

"Having taken two years of anatomy and physiology in college, this exhibit pulled it all together," Deb Hoddech, of Buffalo, wrote in a book of thoughts set up at the end of the MOSI exhibit.

Wrote Margie Robertson, a health and wellness professor at Manatee Community College, "As a professor of health on the college level for almost 40 years, I can honestly say it is one of the best and most worthwhile field trips I have ever chaperoned!"

The MOSI exhibit will be on display through Feb. 26. The museum has included a stack of body donation forms with the exhibit.

Tired of the questions surrounding "Bodies," Romrell said he's resolved to put the fight behind him.

"I think people who are motivated to will their bodies are pretty unique individuals who will not be influenced by that exhibit," he said. "Some of our donors wanted to be assured that such a thing will not happen to them or their loved ones. That I can do."

Usually few drawbacks are associated with body donations, said Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. It's an encouraged end-of-life option, he said.

Caplan advises that potential donors shop around for a program they feel comfortable using. Some programs use bodies to test new medical instruments. Some use them in gross anatomy classes for first-year medical students.

In Florida, Romrell said, a body is used within two years of its donation, and the remains are cremated. Some families request that their relatives' ashes be returned. Other times, medical students have memorial services at the end of the semester and spread the ashes at sea.

The type of donor can vary, Romrell said. But he has noticed that many people who will their bodies were once teachers. Another large group of donors tend to be people who have suffered from an illness.

Last year, Romrell received the body of an 18-year-old man who died of cancer. He had decided to donate his body as he fought his illness.

Certain people can't donate, Romrell said. Anyone whose death involved a trauma, such as a car accident, where organs may have been crushed, extremely obese people and individuals with contagious diseases, such as HIV, cannot become donors.

For Krieber, body donation has become a life legacy for his family. Besides his wife, an aunt, brother-in-law and sister-in-law had their bodies donated to science when they died.

"I have it in my living will," Krieber said. "It's a solid decision. I don't think I'll be changing my mind."

Times researcher Cathy Wos contributed to this story. Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 11, 2005, 02:00:33]